Posted on July 29, 2003

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Sixth Street Community Center

Founded: 1978

Contact: Howard Brandstein, Director

Address:
638 E. 6th St.
New York, NY 10009

Phone: (212) 677-1863
Fax: (212) 677-7166
E-mail: info@sixthstreetcenter.org
URL: http://www.sixthstreetcenter.org

Mission:
To empower the community of New York City's Lower East Side by organizing neighborhood residents around issues concerning food, health, and the environment.

Background:
Established in 1978, Sixth Street Community Center was originally a block association dedicated to improving a neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that was plagued by poverty and crime. Several single mothers living on East 6th Street between Avenues B and C organized the group and began working with the city to seal up abandoned buildings that had turned into havens for drug trafficking and crime. When a synagogue on 6th Street became vacant, the block association raised funds from Save the Children and foundations to purchase the building and create a community center.

Over the years, the Center has offered after-school programs and summer camps for children, provided career development and life skills training for teens, and advocated for tenants rights and entitlement. Since 1996, it has been operating projects focused on sustainable agriculture, health, and nutrition.

Current Programs:
The Center's Seeds to Supper youth program educates young people ages fifteen to eighteen on the issues of sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and health by teaching them to grow fresh, organic fruits and vegetables at a garden in Manhattan and a farm in New Jersey. The teenagers work together as a team to learn farming and culinary skills, experience nature, and explore issues in community nutrition and health. Through its Community Supported Agriculture program, the Center invites local residents to purchase shares in the harvest of several small farms at the beginning of the growing season. As a result, neighborhood residents, particularly low-income families, receive fresh produce, while the farmers are able to cut back on marketing expenses.

In addition to the grassroots programs, the Center operates an advocacy campaign against genetically engineered food. The SOS Food program is working to pressure supermarkets in the New York metropolitan area to stop selling genetically engineered products as well as to promote other community-supported agriculture projects in New York City. In addition, its volunteers testify at hearings, lobby the state capital in Albany, and petition the New York State legislature and Congress for laws banning — or at least requiring special labeling for — genetically engineered food and crops.

Recent Successes:
Recently, the Center's Community Supported Agriculture program expanded its offerings to include organic fruit from a farm on the Hudson River in Milton, New York, and Alaskan salmon, halibut, cod, and rockfish from a fishery in Cordova, Alaska.

Web site:
The Center's Web site includes information about the organization and its programs. Visitors can also access a registration form for the community agriculture program and look up food delivery schedules. The SOS Food part of the site offers in-depth information about genetic engineering, lists of organic food providers, and advocacy resources.